Category: News

Richard Alston Dance Company Spring Tour

Richard Alston Dance Company

Richard Alston Dance Company has recently announced its spring tour for 2013, providing audiences all over the UK with the chance to see an inspirational company take to the stage and feed the artistic hungers of the audience. The tour will takes the company’s 10 dancers to 17 theatres around the UK for 26 performances featuring 6 repertoire pieces and 1 world premiere.

The tour will open in London at the New Wimbledon Theatre on 9 February 2013 with the world premiere of Richard Alston’s Buzzing Round the Hunnisuccle. This brand new commission from the San Francisco based Columbia Foundation continues Alston’s long-held fascination with the music of Japanese composer Jo Kondo. The evening will also contain the newly revived and revised The Devil in the Detail, a joyous and effervescent dance to Scott Joplin’s rags.

Later in the tour, the programme will include Shimmer, one of Alston’s best loved masterpieces, to the evocative music of Ravel, with delicate crystal-encrusted cobweb costumes by fashion designer Julien Macdonald. Roughcut will also be danced to Steve Reich’s New York and Electric Counterpoints, a euphoric display of pure energy, and Unfinished Business, choreographed to the beautiful, lucid and flowing K533, by Mozart. The spring repertoire will be completed by a revival of Lachrymae, set to the compassionate and tender music of Benjamin Britten, a piece originally commissioned in 1994 by The Aldeburgh Festival. This intense piece spins emotional variations on a gentle song by John Dowland which is quiet but deeply moving.

The spring season will culminate in a special event at the Barbican on 29 May as part of the season Dancing Around Duchamp.  Richard Alston Dance Company will perform a one-off event, with choreography by Merce Cunningham, one of the true visionaries of modern dance, especially meaningful for Alston himself who studied with Cunningham from 1975 to 1977.

The h.Club 100 winners!

Hospital Club

Earlier this year the Hospital Club and popular magazine Time Out devised the h.Club 100, a search for the most original and influential people in the UK creative and media industries. Having counted all the votes up the results are available to view, and below is a snapshot of the performance and theatre winners, the talent that is shaping the future after an incredible year for the arts in the UK.

Wayne McGregor – Choreographer, Wayne McGregor | Random Dance, Royal Ballet

In the last 12 months Wayne McGregor | Random Dance has toured, presented participatory performances, including Big Dance Trafalgar Square 2012, and worked on collaborations such as Rain Room at the Barbican Centre. McGregor advocated that during the London hype of the Olympics, new work and visiting international productions was on the top of his list of priorities as part of that spectacular event. He then felt motivated to be more risk-taking, daring and adventurous to test the unusual and challenging, with London’s richly diverse audiences and participants.

Tim Minchin – Performer

Over the last year Minchin has become the ‘darling’ of the West End, as the co-writer of Olivier Award-winning hit Matilda the Musical and after a critically acclaimed portrayal of Judas in the summer 2012 UK tour of Jesus Christ Superstar. Minchin seems set to continue this journey of success into 2013, taking the theatre world by storm.

Sheridan Smith – Actor

Having already starred in a variety of productions such as The Royale Family and Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps, Smith has since won two Olivier Awards in two consecutive years for her roles in Legally Blonde and Flare Path. Her triumph in Hedda Gabler suggests that a serious star is born – watch this space!

Image courtesy of The Hospital Club.

National Youth Dance Company

National Youth Dance Company

Sadler’s Wells has been announced as the host organisation for the new National Youth Dance Company, an exciting new company aiming to create and perform innovative and influential youth dance. The NYDC hopes to draw together some of the brightest young talent from across the country to work with the internationally renowned Associate Artists of Sadler’s Wells, so pull on your leotard and get moving!

February 2013 will see the NYDC meet during school holidays at Sadler’s Wells and other regional venues in order to participate in four intensive weeks of training per year. The company will give its young members the opportunity to work with a range of inspirational teachers and choreographers, to learn, create and perform original work, drawing on a number of dance techniques including contemporary, hip hop, ballet and south Asian dance. What a fantastic opportunity to engage and get involved in a potential career starter.

As a result, the NYDC is seeking dancers aged 16-18 who are passionate about dance, who come from diverse backgrounds with experience in any dance style, and who simply love to perform. Be it in leg warmers and jazz pants, or pointe shoes and pink ballet tights, the NYDC wants to hear from you! As a member of the NYDC, young dancers will have the chance to work with 2013’s guest Artistic Director Jasmin Vardimon, a choreographer at the forefront of today’s dance scene. Members will also have the opportunity to perform in world class venues, learn different dance styles, take part in intensive rehearsals, collaborate with professional choreographers and companies and find out about career pathways and different opportunities.

NYDC experience workshops have also been announced, preceding the 2013 residencies and performances.

NYDC Experience Workshops
25 November Ipswich, DanceEast
2 December London, Sadler’s Wells
15 Swindon Dance
6 January Salford, The Lowry
19 Leeds, Yorkshire Dance
20 Newcastle, Dance City
26 Leicester, Curve Theatre
27 Kent, The Jasmin Vardimon   Production Space
2 February Birmingham Royal Ballet Studios
9 London, Sadler’s Wells
10 (Final selection) London, Sadler’s Wells
NYDC 2013 Residencies
1-12 April The Jasmin Vardimon Production   Space
26 May-2 June London, Sadler’s Wells
NYDC Performances
8 June London, Sadler’s Wells
28/29 London, Sadler’s Wells
30 Kent, The Jasmin Vardimon   Production Space
20 July Leeds, U.Dance 2013
21 Salford, The Lowry
27/28 Bristol

Image courtesy of NYCD.

ISTD Faculty Changes Name

ISTD Logo

The South Asian Dance Faculty of the Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing (ISTD) has announced that it has officially changed its name to the Classical Indian Dance Faculty to more accurately reflect what it represents.

The change of name aims to reflect and acknowledge the preeminence of the generic name by which Bharatanatyam and Kathak – the two dance forms in which the ISTD offers examinations through the Faculty – are known widely in the UK, across the world and in India, the country of their origin. Following a research project and proposal from Akademi, South Asian Dance in the UK, at the time a new ISTD Faculty, was set up in 1999 to examine in Bharatanatyam and Kathak.

Professor Christopher Bannerman, ISTD Chairman, said, “It is a great pleasure to learn of the new name of the Classical Indian Dance Faculty of the ISTD. This work has enhanced and broadened the ISTD portfolio and we look forward to a bright future for the Faculty and its students.”

The announcement of the name change was greeted with applause at Misrana 2012, the Faculty’s increasingly popular classical Indian dance showcase, which was held on Sunday 4 November at the Lowry, Salford Quays.

As far as classical Indian dance is concerned, for around two decades the term ‘South Asian’ has been largely an official term and it is not much used where the dancing foot actually meets the dance floor in a class or rehearsal studio. In the 1990s, when the ISTD’s South Asian Faculty was initially created, it was used to talk about a group of dance forms and be inclusive of its practitioners who came from India, as well as other countries across South Asia.

The new name of the Faculty will also serve to include the future development of syllabi for examinations in other classical Indian dance forms, such as Odissi and Kuchipudi, which are rapidly gaining ground in Britain.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Dance Umbrella’s Artistic Director to Step Down

Dance Umbrella

Betsy Gregory, Artistic Director of Dance Umbrella, has announced that she will be standing down from the post next autumn in 2013, at the conclusion of the 35th Dance Umbrella  festival. By the time she leaves the leotards, leg warmers and array of coloured costumes behind her of previous festivals, Gregory will have completed sixteen years at Dance Umbrella, seven of them as Artistic Director.

The 2012 festival marked a major shift for Dance Umbrella, both artistically and organisationally. There were many firsts: it was the first time the festival programme was co-curated, the first time the festival was devoted to investigating a very particular ‘slice’ of what dance makers are doing right now, and the first time the festival has taken place almost entirely in a single venue, the new Platform Theatre at UAL’s Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design. Houses were full and feedback from the audience was overwhelmingly positive.

Since Greogory’s appointment in 2007, the Dance Umbrella Board and team have successfully navigated the organisation through a major transition in which the team have introduced many new strands of activity. These include free, outdoor performances, large-scale participatory projects of an unusually high artistic quality and the presentation of new work from under represented areas of the world, such as Africa.

The 2013 festival will continue Dance Umbrella’s innovation: bringing the new and developing audiences and the art form.2013 the team will return to a more expansive festival format, working with multiple partners across the city to present new work and collaborate on unique projects which would not happen otherwise. Over the next year, with the support of the Board and the Arts Council, Gregory will work to ensure that Dance Umbrella is in the strongest possible position to continue its work into the future, under the leadership of a new Artistic Director.

Image courtesy of Dance Umbrella.

Rambert Dance Company’s New Home

Rambert Dance Company Logo

To celebrate 10 years at the helm of Rambert Dance Company, Artistic Director Mark Baldwin joined the Rambert dancers on the South Bank to appeal for support in the final stages of the fundraising campaign for the Company’s new headquarters at the heart of London’s cultural quarter. The dancers, the admin team and the inspirational teaching staff will be transporting their dance tights, foot thongs and assortment of leotards and costumes to a new start next year.

The UK’s national contemporary dance company worked hard to encourage supporters to make a £5 donation on 1 November 2012, the date of Baldwin’s official anniversary of becoming Artistic Director. Those who donated on the anniversary were entered into a special prize draw to win a VIP trip to Rambert Dance Company’s new headquarters during the opening celebrations in 2013.

Rambert Dance Company has been provided with a once in a lifetime opportunity to build a new home, leaving its Chiswick headquarters next year. In return for a commitment to provide a significant community dance programme, Rambert has been given a plot of land by Coin Street Community Builders, one of the UK’s leading social enterprises. The new home will safeguard Rambert’s future and that of contemporary dance as a centre for choreography and music for dance. It will cement Rambert’s status as one of the world’s great dance companies and enable it to improve its already excellent artistic standards, be a powerhouse for new choreography and become the centre for dance and music in the UK.

Every aspect of the building’s design – by award-winning architects Allies & Morrison – operation and programme of education and outreach activities will set new standards for public engagement with the art form. Rambert will move to its new South Bank home in 2013.

 

Sadler’s Successful Year!

Sadler's Wells

On October 30 2012 Sadler’s Wells, the UK’s leading dance house, held its annual  press conference which detailed its 2011/12 year of achievement and success both at home and abroad.

An increased number of performances took place at its three London venues – Sadler’s Wells, the Peacock Theatre and the Lilian Baylis Studio – and an international touring programme took eleven productions to 28 cities across the world, spreading its dance influence to leotard wearers to tappers to high-kicking New Yorker wearers. Of these eleven productions, eight were the work of Sadler’s Wells Associate Artists with a total audience of 131,597. This is a fantastic achievement for those Artists involved, proving that dance is in high demand by a range of demographics: over 13% of the population now attending dance performances. The theatre is dedicated to working with celebrated artists, performers and companies at the forefront of the arts, and the Associate Artists and resident companies include Balletboyz, Matthew Bourne and his company New Adventures, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Jonzi D, Sylvie Guillem, Michael Hulls, Akram Khan, Russell Maliphant, Kate Prince and her company ZooNation UK Dance Company, Nitin Sawhney, Hofesh Shechter, Jasmin Vardimon, Christopher Wheeldon, Wayne McGregor and his company Wayne McGregor | Random Dance.

Additional achievements of the year for Sadler’s include 677 performances being presented on the stages of the three venues which is an increase of 53 shows on last year. 128 artists were commissioned during this period with income from the artistic programme reaching £16 million. Over 650,000 tickets were sold in the UK and on tour, and 90% of Sadler’s £22.8 million turnover was generated from earned income, 71% of income through ticket sales.

Since 2005 Sadler’s Wells has commissioned, co-commissioned, produced and co-produced over 80 new productions. Here’s to 2012/13!

 

Liam Scarlett: The Royal Ballet’s First Artist in Residence

Liam Scarlett

Liam Scarlett, a First Artist of The Royal Ballet, has been appointed the first ever Royal Ballet Artist in Residence, allowing him to focus solely on his choreographic work. Scarlett will take up the position with immediate effect and make his last appearances with the Company as a dancer in the current run of Swan Lake, donning his ballet tights and tunic for the last time.

Scarlett’s latest work Viscera has since received its UK premiere at the Royal Opera House as part of a Mixed programme also featuring Wayne McGregor’s Infra and Christopher Wheeldon’s Fool’s Paradise, with past works including Sweet Violets, Asphodel Meadows and Diana & Actaeon from Metamorphosis: Titian 2012 earlier this year.

Over its expansive history, The Royal Ballet has been very lucky to receive generous support for new choreography, most recently through the New Ballet Works syndicate, launched in September and a scheme which will also work to support three new works being created by Scarlett, McGregor and Wheeldon. Donations received so far have raised over £450,000, which goes an extremely long way in enabling the extensive time and resources required when creating new choreography, especially for those as exciting as Scarlett’s.

His performance and choreographic talents have developed both on and off stage since Scarlett’s time at the Royal Ballet School and Company over the past sixteen years and subsequently as a member of the Company with previous Artistic Director Monica Mason’s encouragement. Now Scarlett has even more opportunity to concentrate full time on his choreographic work under new Director Kevin O’Hare and embark on some intriguing new projects in the future.

Image courtesy of ROH at Flickr.

The Royal Opera House’s Student Ambassador Scheme

Royal Opera HouseThe Royal Opera House has just launched its Student Ambassador scheme, open to all students from across the UK and giving them, as Ambassadors, access to a whole host of exciting and exclusive benefits. The ROH has invited students from all over the UK to apply to be a Royal Opera House Student Ambassador for the coming academic year as an exciting new dance activity to engage with.

The ROH searched for passionate, creative and confident students who will advocate for the ROH at their universities this year as the first ever ROH Student Ambassadors. The ambassadors will promote exciting productions from the Main Stage, the Alternative programme and the ROH Cinema Season throughout the year by ensuring that the Royal Opera House is represented in the right places and at the right times on and around their universities. The ROH hopes that this will give all students access to world-class productions at the ROH, whether it be in London or at cinemas nationwide, pointe shoe clad or solely leotards.

The Ambassadors will receive access to discounted and complimentary tickets to ROH productions, a fascinating insight into the inner workings of one of the world’s greatest opera houses, the opportunity to meet and network with other Ambassadors and arts professionals and the opportunity to get an insight into the ROH creative departments, in addition to the possibility of being awarded a week long work placement at the ROH in the summer of 2013. Successful applicants who will have been informed recently of their new positions will be able to start the scheme off by The Royal Ballet’s Mixed Programme featuring Viscera, Infra and Fool’s Paradise.

The Royal Opera House Student Standby scheme is generously made possible by the Bunting Family and the Robey Family.

Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.

Quicksilver – Rambert’s Youth Dance Company

Following in the footsteps of Rambert Dance Company’s recent stint at the Sadler’s Wells is Quicksilver: Rambert’s youth dance company, complete with their leotards, tights and fresh inspiration. Quicksilver is a group of talented young dancers aged 15-24 who focus on new contemporary works as well as learning Rambert repertoire, led by Rambert Animateur Laura Harvey. Previous performances by the Quicksilver company have included the opening of the Eurostar from St Pancras International Station, various dance platforms at the Lilian Baylis Theatre and Sadler’s Wells, as well as performances for Richdance festival and Big Dance.

As part of Big Dance 2012, Quicksilver worked in association with Age UK towards a performance at The Watermans Theatre in Brentford in a new collaborative piece choreographed by, simultaneously, Artistic Director Laura Harvey. Over the summer of 2012, Quicksilver has been performing their new piece Trapeze, most recently shown at the final sharing for Move-In at The Clore Ballroom at the Southbank Centre. In addition to this, Quicksilver has also taken part in the flashmob Shh… It’s a Secret at the Westfield shopping centre in Shepherd’s Bush involving over 200 dancers aged between nine years and 90. This appearance was also led by Laura Harvey, bringing the shopping centre to a standstill for the seven minute piece which showcased a range of dance styles.

Another flashmob which took place recently featuring the Quicksilver dancers was at St Pancras Station to champion the work of the London 2012 Olympic Games volunteers and the legacy created from their work throughout the Olympic and Paralympic events. The flashmob included both the Quicksilver dancers and the volunteers, joined together in an uplifting and inspiring piece for both the press and the early morning commuters at 8am.